G20 declaration - India led the way and all emerging markets joined: Kant

The leaders of G20 nations wrapped up the Bali Summit with a joint declaration "deploring Russia's aggression in Ukraine".  While a lot went behind drafting the joint statement, India played a major role in getting all nations to come to a consensus with regards to the paragraph on geopolitics.

The G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant told CNBC-TV18 that the negotiations were very tough and complex because many countries were involved. However, India led the way and Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey  joined hands saying that an even balanced statement is required.

"It can't be condemnation all the way, there are various challenges. And we managed to convince the G7 at the last minute that you can't have a statement which is totally political in nature and therefore the focus should be on growth. This is the moment when the world needs growth, this is the moment when the world needs progress on sustainable development goals," Kant said.

The US, UK, France, Canada, Germany, Japan and Italy are members of the G7.

The former NITI Aayog CEO said that the original paragraph that was being drafted with regards to the Russia-Ukraine War was more of a "very long statement, which was very one-sided". He said the G20 is not a forum for security, it is a forum for growth and progress, which is India thought it was best to fall back on the UN resolution. "We worked through two difficult nights to finally convince the G7 that we should go back to the UN Resolution, pick up components of that and really spell out the voting pattern as given out in the UN resolution and then conclude it with what PM Modi had said regarding this being the age of diplomacy and dialogue and not an era of war," he said.

The final text also mentions that "there were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions. Recognizing that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy."

Kant also spoke about the three key issues -- food, coal and fertiliser -- that were discussed at length at the Summit as it was felt that the food and fertiliser supply from both Russia and Ukraine needed to be unlocked. He said the extension to initiatives taken by Ukraine and Russia to boost food supplies are the need of the hour.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the Summit and the country  was represented by its foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. However, Lavrov was not  present on the last day when the final declaration was put out.

Post the final declaration, Indonesia handed over the G20 Presidency to India by passing the honourary gavel. India will hold the high profile gathering next year. In the build up, there will be 200 meetings across 32 sectors culminating in the summit on September 9 and 10, 2023.